Elizabeth Pitt was born December of 1817 in Kentucky to parents Joseph R Pitt (1762-1836) and Elizabeth Waller (1776-1839). She more than likely was born in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky given that in 1810 her parents were living in Isle of Wight County, Virginia and had moved to Lewisburg, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky by 1820.

Elizabeth married Gray Stringer on December 28, 1837 in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.

I can’t find them on the 1840 census, so they may have been living with relatives, possibly Gray’s parents.

In 1850 the Stringer family lived in Subdivision 2, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Gray, age 41 years, was a farmer. Elizabeth, age 32 years, kept house. The children in the household were America (age 11 years), Lucy (age 9 years) and Margaret (age 7 years). There was also a young man named Balis Stringer (age 15 years) listed as a laborer. I haven’t yet figured out how he is related to the family. If he were a son he would have been listed before America. Since he is last on the family list he may be a nephew.

Gray died in 1857 leaving Elizabeth a widow. In 1860 she is found living in McLean County, Kentucky. Here she is 40 years of age. The children living in the household with her are Virginia (age 8 years), Sally M (age 6 years) and John S (age 3 years). Also living with the family are John D Beasley (farmer, age 20 years) and Lucy E Beasley (age 18 years). I think that Lucy may be Elizabeth’s daughter, but I couldn’t find a marriage record for Lucy Stringer and John Beasley. I did, however, find a marriage record for America Stringer and Johnson Beasley. I thought that maybe America had passed and her husband remarried to her sister, but there are several America Beasleys on later census records who are widowed. Any one of them could be her!

The 1870 census shows Elizabeth remarried and living in Sacramento, McLean County, Kentucky. Her husband Joseph C Moore is shown as head of household, a farmer and age 54 years. Elizabeth is listed as 53 years of age. The children living in the household are Virginia Stringer (age 18 years), Sallie Stringer (age 16 years), John Stringer (age 13 years) and Benjamin Stringer (age 3 years). We will find in a later census record that Benjamin Stringer is her grandson. We will also end up being very confused by Benjamin Stringer. Also, I haven’t found a marriage record for Elizabeth to Joseph.

I assume by 1880 Joseph C Moore has passed. Elizabeth is shown living in District 19, Sacramento, McLean County, Kentucky by herself. She is listed as Elizabeth W Moore, age 58 years.

No census for 1890…of course.

In 1900 Elizabeth is head of household in District 98, Sacramento, McLean County, Kentucky. Her last name is not legible at all, so I don’t know if she remarried after Joseph C Moore died. She is listed as 82 years of age and widowed. Living with her is Ben A Moore, her grandson, age 36 years. Ben A Moore is the same person as Benjamin Stringer listed in the 1870 census. If we go back and look at the records for Elizabeth’s daughter Margaret then we will see that Benjamin is her son, but I don’t know who his father was.

Elizabeth Pitt died sometime after the 1900 census, but I am not sure when. I cannot find any death or burial records for her. Her parents are buried in McLean County, Kentucky, but she doesn't appear to be buried in the same cemetery. Like I said, I don’t know if she ever remarried after Joseph died, nor do I know if she and Joseph were actually married or if they were common law married. Either way, I haven’t yet found her grave.

11/13/2011

I looked up the history of The Waldorf toilet tissue and found on several websites that initially the Scott Tissue company was just as embarrassed to have their name on a roll of toilet paper as people were to buy the stuff. According to Webster’s Online Dictionary: “later 19th century: Scott Paper Company sells toilet paper on a roll, although initially they do not print their company name on the packaging. Toilet paper was sold under the name of various industrial customers, including the Waldorf Hotel, which led to the popular Waldorf brand of toilet paper.”

I guess asking for “The Waldorf, please” was classier than “hey, I need some toilet paper”.

11/12/2011

*I have updated this post to remove the Civil War records for Thomas Craft. Through a cousin I found that these records are actually for his son Thomas Craft! I am very thankful to Ann for pointing this out to me and being so helpful! I will not be changing all of the information in the post, but I will be writing another supplemental post for him with further and corrected information, which I will link to after it is written.

My relationship to Thomas Craft:

Me

Virginia Marie Stalls (my mom)

Ruth May Craft (my grandmother)

Henry Corbett Craft (my great-grandfather)

John Craft (my 2nd great-grandfather)

Thomas Craft (my 3rd great-grandfather)

Thomas Craft is the furthest Craft ancestor I can trace back to with confidence, though I am still stuck on finding some records for him. I can only post what I have on him.

Thomas Craft was born about 1810 in North Carolina. I’m not sure who his parents are, and it seems that no one is positive. The thought is that a man named Prestley (Presley)/Ezekiel Craft is his father due to a certain appointment record for the estate of a Hendrix man, but it has not yet been proven. I have seen some reports that Thomas was married prior to 1839 to an unknown woman and fathered several children with this woman, but I haven’t found a record for this marriage yet, therefore I do not know her name nor the date. Thomas did marry Dicey Hendrix (Hendricks) sometime around 1840, though I can’t find the record for this marriage either, and therefore cannot provide an exact date.

In 1850 Thomas and family can be found on the census living in Humphreys County, Tennessee. Thomas, a farmer, is 39 years of age and Dicey is shown as 26 years of age. The children living with them are: William (age 17 years), Lucinda (age 14 years), Martha (age 12 years), Sarah (age 10 years), Thomas (age 7 years), Rebecca (age 3 years) and Mary (age 1 year). I’m not sure if Sarah is from Thomas’ first marriage or from his marriage to Dicey. Also listed on this page of the census are the families of HP Craft (born in North Carolina, age 35 years) and Presley Craft (born in North Carolina, age 66 years)-possibly Thomas’ brother and father.

The 1860 census once again has the family living in Humphreys County, Tennessee. Thomas, now shown as 52 years of age (man, how did he gain three extra years?) is still a farmer. His wife Dicey is now shown as 38 years of age (gaining two extra years!). The older children have now moved out of the house and the children living with the family on this census are: Rebecca (age 13 years), Mary (age 11 years), Arrena (Irene or Irena, age 9 years), Susan (age 6 years) and George (age 4 years). Living next door to them is the family of Thomas’ oldest son William.

In 1870 the family is still living in Humphreys County, Tennessee. Thomas, now listed as a framer and 60 years of age, and Dicey, now 48 years of age, have the following children living with them: Rebecca (age 23 years), Irena (age 19 years), Susan (age 16 years), George W (farm laborer, age 14 years), John (farm laborer, age 11 years), James (age 8 years), and Ester P (age 2 years). Also living with the family is John Johnson (farm laborer, age 24 years), Mary E Johnson (age 20 years) and William T Johnson (age 8 months). I think Mary E Johnson may be Thomas’ daughter Mary, but I can’t find a marriage record for Mary Craft having married John Johnson (yet).

The 1880 census is the last census where Thomas Craft can be found. His age is listed as 70 years on this census and is still farming away. Dicey is now listed as 58 years of age and keeping house. The children living with them are: Susan (without occupation, age 26 years), John (works on farm, age 18 years), James (works on farm, age 16 years) and CA (at home, age 13 years). I do not have a clue who CA is, unless she’s Ester P (from the 1870 census). Living next door to the family is the family of George W Craft, Thomas’ son.

Thomas Craft died sometime after this census. I would imagine he died in Humphreys County, Tennessee. I saw some people have him listed as having died in Canada, though I don’t have the foggiest why he would have just gone up there away from his family and died. Stranger things have happened, though.

I’m going to keep looking for records on Thomas Craft, particularly who his parents were. I would like to go further back in my Craft line.

11/11/2011

My Granddaddy James Paul Stalls, Jr (1917-1987) enlisted in the Seabees (US Navy) on November 4, 1943. When he told his mother Minnie Virginia Richards (1896-1974), she became very upset and worried. He told her that she had nothing to worry about because the Seabees went in after the fighting was over to rebuild. Shortly after telling her this an article appeared in the newspaper about the Seabees holding off an enemy until the troops arrived to defend.

Throughout his life Granddaddy went by his middle name Paul, but in the Seabees he was known as Jimmy.

Granddaddy was stationed in the Aleutian Islands during WWII. On the troop ship to the Aleutian Islands there were torpedo boats all around them. A lot of the men were crying, scared. Granddaddy decided to just go to sleep so that if they were hit by a torpedo he wouldn’t be awake for it.

Granddaddy fell in love with Alaska and years later wanted to return for a visit, but he never got the chance.

While he was stationed in the Aleutians he was assigned to the sign shop. Officers were impressed by his artistic talent and would ask him to do various artistic projects for them. As a result of these projects he and his friends were provided with special reserved seating for movies. There were frequent earthquakes in the Aleutians, and he said that it was difficult to watch a movie as the image would bounce from the ceiling to a wall and to another wall.

His best friend was William Yernipcut from Anadarko, Oklahoma. Once when Granddaddy and William were shooting craps, William refused to shoot. He told Granddaddy that friends don’t gamble against each other.

One day one of Granddaddy’s friends came into the sign shop to tell him that a Russian Navy ship had arrived at the harbor and there were women sailors aboard. Granddaddy had not seen a woman in so long that he ran right out to the dock. He said that there was only one woman on the deck waving to them. Even though it had been so long since he had seen a woman he still did not find this one attractive. He said, “She was the ugliest damn woman and had no teeth.”

Russian and American soldiers alike kept notebooks with them to exchange vocabulary. The pages of Granddaddy’s Seabee notebook are below.

Ok, these are the final records of Lewis Stewart during the Civil War that I found on Fold3. Remember how he was in the hospital sick, but no reason was previously given? Well, I know everyone has been dying to know, so here we go!

The first page is a Muster Roll that tells us that he was in the hospital in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Next we have his information sheet for that hospital in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Diagnosis? Acute Diarrhea. And Small Pox dated January 21, 1865.

Treatment? I don’t know! It’s blank!

The result? He returned to duty February 20, 1865.

On July 10, 1865 Lewis Stewart mustered out, or discharged, from the Union Army in Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina.

I hope to find the information for Lewis Stewart’s life outside of the military soon. He apparently had a lot of children, I just can’t track them all down. As soon as I can I will be back with more about him!

There are so many Civil War records for Lewis Stewart that I really hate to put them all in one post. I started yesterday with two sets of photos I found on Ancestry and Fold3. I was going to post all of the rest of them today, but it really is too much, so I will break up this third set into two posts. At first I wasn’t sure why everything for him on Fold3 wasn’t together, but then I realized that one set was probably just from the hospital and one set was probably kept in the Company.

So these are from the company! The first four pages are from his actual enlistment. The fifth page is a descriptive muster roll.

Oh, and for the record I looked up Dyersville, Kentucky. I can’t find any information on it whatsoever. I think Dyersville and Bowling Green go hand in hand.

I really wanted to do a full post on the life of Lewis Stewart, but a lot of the information I have come across isn’t sourced on the websites where I found it and haven’t been able to source it yet. So until I can, I will offer a bit of what I do have on him, which would be his Civil War records (found on Fold3 and Ancestry). There are A LOT of records on him during the Civil War, so I will start with the first two sets I found and then I will post the last set tomorrow.

The first set is two pages I found on Ancestry. These are Draft Registrations. The first is titled Enrollment List of Persons Subject to Military Duty in the Second District of Kentucky. He is number 14 on the list. He is 35 years, white, a farmer, born in Kentucky and no previous military service.

The next page found on Ancestry is titled CONSOLIDATED LIST of all persons of Class I, subject to do military duty in the Second Congressional District, consisting of the Counties of Muhlenberg and (blank) State of Kentucky, enumerated during the month of July 1863, under direction of Capt. Jno (John) R. Grissom, Provost Marshal. On this list Lewis Stewart is found at number 19, age 35 years, white, farmer, married, born in Kentucky, no former military service and no remarks.

The next set of records I found for him are on Fold3.

Lewis Stewart was in the Union Army as a Private in Company C, 26th Regiment Kentucky Infantry. According to the first record, a Company Descriptive Book, Lewis enlisted March 22, 1864 for a term of 3 years. We also find out what he looked like! He is described as 36 years of age, 5 feet 8 3/4 inches tall, dark complexion, gray eyes and black hair. He is listed as having been born in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky and his occupation is as a farmer.

The next four records are Hospital Muster Rolls.

The first two Hospital Muster Rolls are both dated for November and December 1864. His attachment to the hospital occurred on November 27, 1864. The only other information for him on these records is that he is a patient, but no reason is given.

The last two Hospital Muster Rolls are both dated January and February 1865. They both have him as having returned to duty February 20, 1865. Still no cause of his hospital stay is given.

The last record from this set for him is his return to duty. This card says:

Nov. 1864~absent sick

Dec. 1864~absent hosp. B.Green, Ky

Jan. & Feb. 1865-absent sick in hosp.

May 1865-Detailed at Brig. Hd. Qur.

So we know from November 27, 1864 to February 20, 1865 he was in the hospital sick, but these cards don’t give us a reason. There is a notation at the bottom of this record letting us know that he was also recorded as Lewis “Steward”.

Don’t worry! Tomorrow’s post will have more information, including the reason for his stay in the hospital! Hopefully I can find sources to cite regarding his life outside of the military, too!

11/06/2011

Both the ad and the recipe were found in the November 1, 1942 edition of the now defunct The American Weekly.

Looking up the Scott’s Emulsion pretty much made me gag. Not only because it’s cod liver oil, but also because you can still buy this product and it comes in flavors: Original, Cherry and Orange. Blech.

Now for something more appetizing. This recipe for Corn Meal Soufflé sounds pretty good, though I would probably use more cheese.

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